Our mission president had referred to our place as an 'apartment,' as he does all the missionaries' places, but we were pleased to find that ours is actually a little house, and a very pleasant one, at that. We have a gate at the street, where we drive in, and another gate from the driveway into the yard. (I should say that any property of any value here is surrounded by a wall with a locking gate. It's not uncommon at all to see barbed wire on top of the wall, and all windows have grids on them.) Our driveway comes past our landlord, Pablo's, house, which sits right in front of ours, so we actually have a little buffer from the street. Behind us is some more property belonging to Pablo, with banana trees and another large tree overhanging our patio. Every day we sweep up leaves, and we're told it sheds leaves all year, but it's such a pretty tree and provides a nice filter for the sunlight streaming in. I'll have to find out what kind of tree it is. Lots of little leaves . . .
Banana tree overhanging our truck
Our house is only about 11 feet wide, so our living room and our bedroom above it have windows on three sides. Lots of light! And the floors are white tile, so it's always clean and light inside, and with ample furniture. Our kitchen is small, but there's another room attached, with our fridge, laundry-drying rack, and lots of storage. We have a small 4-burner gas stove with an oven, a small double sink with a water filtration system on it (because the tap water here is contaminated), and -- oh, yes -- we have one temperature of water. It's kind of tepid. : ) Also a microwave, toaster, rice cooker, crockpot, blender, and a water cooler. All these things, along with all our dishes and utensils, were provided by the mission. Oh, and air conditioning! Yay!!! (Actually, there've been two missionary couples in this house before us, so they had all this stuff here for them.) There's a bathroom on this floor, also, with a shower, but there's a little washing machine in the shower.
Outside the kitchen door, there's a sink in a tiled counter, where we'd probably be washing our clothes if we didn't have a washer. I think most houses have such a spot for doing laundry. And there's a clothesline outside, but it's too risky to use during the rainy season (now). Actually, without a washer, we probably would've hired some help by now, which we may end up doing, anyway. You can get a lady to come in a couple times a week for really cheap, and it does provide a job for someone. It just kind of goes against the grain, to have someone come in and do what we've always done for ourselves, but we may still decide to do it. We're having to iron a lot, since we don't have a dryer . . . We'll see.
Upstairs are two small bedrooms, both with AC (here, they call it 'air con') and good closet space. One is used as our office. We have a good queen-sized bed in the other, which is the one thing I'd kind of worried about before we came. It's not quite like home, but it's very comfortable. : ) The upstairs bathroom ('CR,' for 'comfort room') has a good shower in it, and the mission has added a 'flash' water heater, which heats the water as you use it. And we have another water filter on the bathroom sink faucet.
Everything but the bare bones of this house has been provided by the church. When you rent a place here, it's really pretty bare. This house does have kitchen cupboards; some don't. The same with bedroom closets: they're built-in in this house, not everywhere. So we do appreciate our comfortable situation, and the more we see of other housing here, the more we appreciate what we have! Our landlord has been really on the ball about any problems, so that's great, too.
Home, sweet home!
Outside the kitchen door, there's a sink in a tiled counter, where we'd probably be washing our clothes if we didn't have a washer. I think most houses have such a spot for doing laundry. And there's a clothesline outside, but it's too risky to use during the rainy season (now). Actually, without a washer, we probably would've hired some help by now, which we may end up doing, anyway. You can get a lady to come in a couple times a week for really cheap, and it does provide a job for someone. It just kind of goes against the grain, to have someone come in and do what we've always done for ourselves, but we may still decide to do it. We're having to iron a lot, since we don't have a dryer . . . We'll see.
Upstairs are two small bedrooms, both with AC (here, they call it 'air con') and good closet space. One is used as our office. We have a good queen-sized bed in the other, which is the one thing I'd kind of worried about before we came. It's not quite like home, but it's very comfortable. : ) The upstairs bathroom ('CR,' for 'comfort room') has a good shower in it, and the mission has added a 'flash' water heater, which heats the water as you use it. And we have another water filter on the bathroom sink faucet.
Everything but the bare bones of this house has been provided by the church. When you rent a place here, it's really pretty bare. This house does have kitchen cupboards; some don't. The same with bedroom closets: they're built-in in this house, not everywhere. So we do appreciate our comfortable situation, and the more we see of other housing here, the more we appreciate what we have! Our landlord has been really on the ball about any problems, so that's great, too.
Home, sweet home!
That is a WAY cute place! So charming. And how happy to see Elder Shamrell in a kitchen doing his magic.
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